It is with great sadness that we must
tell you that the course of single payer health care -- "Medicare style
care for all" -- appears to be dead. This is not just the bill,
SB 810, but the issue. Events unfolded at the end of January that
changed, perhaps permanently, the ability of legislators to work with
single payer supporters. It is not a pretty story.

This is a long discussion. We believe it is
essential to tell it.

Many of you know single payer began as a legislative strategy in about
2003 then was introduced by Senator Sheila Kuehl. It was passed through
the Legislature several times only to be vetoed by then-Governor
Schwarzenegger. He grew up in Austria with single payer but continued to
insist it was "socialist" and thus unacceptable to
him.

After Sen.
Kuehl was termed out, the bill was eagerly adopted by newly-elected
Senator Mark Leno. However, he arrived in the Senate along with a new
group of Senate and Assembly leaders who had no history with single
payer. By 2010 the financial data from the Lewin Report -- crucial to
passage -- was over 12 years old and highly out of date, and educating
the new members was therefore increasingly
difficult.

Over a year
ago the single payer grassroots steering committee, the State Strategy
Group, agreed to create a panel of experts who would do a new fiscal
analysis to update the information from the Lewin Report. IMPACT
helped find experts on health care financing for the panel, and the SSG
knew that it would cost about $250,000 to get this done
well.

For both the
incoming governor, Jerry Brown and all the new legislators, this
evidence of cost savings for individuals, families, small business, and
the state was crucial. Single payer had to show it would be at least as
if not more effective than federal health care reform in cost savings
for all parties. It would be impossible to convince legislators
unfamiliar with single payer that it was a very responsible measure =
without those data.

Consequently, in its first foray under Senator Leno's authorship, the
bill did not pass on the Assembly floor. There were simply too many
grave doubts, and the newer members had no interaction with single payer
supporters who might have eased their concerns.

In response to that loss, the SSG decided
suddenly to abandon SB 810 and the fiscal report and go the initiative
route thinking it would be simple and that the governor could put it on
the ballot. That is not possible since it would have to be done
legislatively and requires a supermajority vote. To do an independent
initiative with signature gathering is extremely expensive. SSG fund
raising therefore turned to obtaining the $2-3 million needed just to do
a signature drive, but the money never materialized for the ballot
measure, much less the financial analysis.

No initiative. No fiscal
study.

Senator
Leno continued to shepherd SB 810 until, as is customary, it went into
"suspense" the last week of January in Senate Appropriations. Suspense
occurs when there are large questions about costs and means to cover
them. Despite the
pressure to hold the bill for lack of financial analysis, President pro Tem of the Senate
Darrell Steinberg used his leadership strength to send it to the floor.
At the first floor vote, five Senators abstained, all of whom had
the same fiscal reservations expressed by Senators in Appropriations.
Steinberg, as a strong single payer supporter, kept the bill "on call"
until the absolutely last moment, January 31 by which time legally it
had to pass or die.

Over the weekend senators Leno and Steinberg asked the abstaining
members for a "courtesy vote." This is a vote that occurs when
a member with reservations still moves a bill to keep it
going.

Those
votes were getting pinned down when on January 30th the grassroots
advocates started a massive phone campaign to senators. The
results were shocking. Office after office including Leno's and
Steinberg's were flooded with calls -- angry, berating, nasty,
threatening, and bullying calls. These were not from opponents of
single payer. These were from supporters.

When callers could not access senators or
their top staff, they lambasted lower-level staff right down to the
receptionists. One young woman, new to the Capitol, was shattered by
the vicious attacks on her and her senator. She was absolutely
devastated by the personal assaults on her character and politics.
Other, older staff were tougher, but every one of them was shaken to
their foundations by how incredibly violent and abusive the calls were
from supporters.

What the enraged supporters did not realize -- because they never
asked -- is that yes, the requisite number of courtesy votes were being
gathered. But after the barrage of abuse, these senators, all
with reservations due to the absence of information on financial
impacts, withdrew those votes in disgust. Senator Leno then
pulled the bill rather than having it die on the
floor.

We are
aware that these calls did not involve the faith community. Insofar as
people identified themselves, those from faith groups were not the
source of the harassment. It did not matter enough, however, to prevent
the massive meltdown from other less responsible groups and
individuals.

At this
moment so much damage has been done from the barrage of nasty calls that
it is seriously doubtful any legislator will ever work with any of the
single payer supporters again, not even in the faith
community.

This
means single payer likely is dead in California. The most important
point is that SB 810 died NOT due to the insurance industry or even from
Senate opposition -- the votes were ready for passage - but due to the
obnoxious and outrageous actions of its
supporters.

We have
no idea what will now transpire. What we do know is thatbefore we go
any further as a body of people, faith and secular, we need to have some
resolution about how we proceed. We encourage opening these discussions
in your area. That will not be easy. No one likes to think that his or
her actions could have caused so much damage. No one likes to
think that they are in the wrong. It is easy to dismiss the lack
of votes as the fault of the Senators.

But if we are going to be effective, we
need to have not just progressive politics but progressive humanity and
good sense as well. That is a community conversation we all
must have.